


After Ashes

by UltimateSaturn



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Defenders (Marvel TV), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Infinity War, Multi, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 14:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14474685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateSaturn/pseuds/UltimateSaturn
Summary: The remnants of the Marvel Universe deal with the fallout of Infinity War. But even with all the chaos that has occurred there's still hope in the heroes that defend the city everyday.POST INFINITY WAR CONTAINS SPOILERS!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys today I bring you possible events of what happens after Infinity War and how they rest of the marvel universe manages to move on deposite the world being left to ashes.

Hell's Kitchen, population 45,884 as of 2010, current population as of 2018 it's 21,736. 

No one could explain what had occured, just everything changed, in a matter of minutes people died. Recent estimates put about half of the Earth's population as deceased, no one knew why, after another alien attack on New York no one could really understand why these events constantly seem to happen.

What did we do to deserve this?

An economic collapse occurred almost immediately with what had transpired, people had taken to the streets to gather wherever they could, with not enough police to keep order humanity devolved into anarchy. 

That's where I come in, for whatever divine reason I was still breathing, even after surviving a building being dropped on me, I lived. I found a spare uniform I had kept in my apartment and had taken to the rooftops to watch over the carnage that was unfolding on the streets. The government had been running supply drops to parts of the city, what they didn't understand was that it wasn't the resources that was the problem, it was the people. There wasn't anyone to manage the system and all the intricacies that went along with it, so now I look down at was what was once a simple street of convenience stores and hairdressers, now a shambled wreck with small groups of people trying to pry open metal supply containers that had been dropped.

I felt their hopes die as their sense of loss had overtaken them since within the two weeks since half the world died there was no pattern to it, an even spread of death fell across the rich, poor, sick, healthy. 

An act of God is what I'd once say.

As an old shivering man finally managed to crack open a crate with his bare hands then a deafening bang rippled through the air as he fell to the ground, slamming his head onto the crate creating a large blood stain. Behind him a gang of cultists had fired a bullet into his head in broad daylight in front of two dozen other scavengers. They were clad in a variety of shoddy coats and masks which covered the lower halves of their faces. But the one identifier was their prominent silver crucifixes that they wore proudly around their necks.

The leader spoke with a heavy gravitas as he proclaimed his twisted will on a fearful crowd who could do nothing but stand and watch. 

“These spoils are in the ownership of our Lord and saviour! You will not pillage them with such greed, to all those who wish to partake you must acquire them through us with something to offer the community or face death!” The leader who spoke in an almost Shakespearean tone to the bystanders smiling in their begrudging compliance.

“And what if we say no?” Came the voice of a young man who had pulled out a handgun in defiance of the preacher, along with him a similar sized gang of apparent hoodlums. 

“Then we shall shed blood for our Lord!” The Preacher commanded while his cohorts held up their rifles.

I couldn't bare witness to this much longer, I jumped from the rooftop with ease swinging on a lamppost to break my fall as I landed on a battered crashed car that stood between the two factions, smashing it's windows drawing their attention. 

Just like old times, after all I am the Devil Of Hell's Kitchen.

“Now I do believe your interpretation is a bit problematic.” I couldn't figure out why I try to reason with him but something must get through to this crazed Preacher.

“Taking advice from a man dressed as a Devil? Spare me your selfish views heraric! After all you're the reason we're here in this mess, God punished us for actions of non believers and now we must punish you!” Called the Preacher as allies charged forward and so did the gang behind me in retaliation. 

Despite their greater number I managed to use my Billy club to make quick work of them. As one attempted a strike I countered kicking him into another, using my club as a chain I wrapped it around one of their rifles and used it to knock out another. They never stood a chance, no knife came close to my skin as I hammered them all back into the legs of those foolish enough to use them on me. With my years of martial arts training I dispatched them all at a blistering fast speed.  
After several minutes, I caught my breath while leaning against a parked car and looked across the countless unconscious bodies of the criminals I took out. 

“What is this world coming to?” I managed to say amongst all my heavy breathing.

“That's *coughs* the thing…. Isn't it? *Coughs*” Came the voice of The Preacher as he was laying on the ground in pain.

“You killed an innocent man, I don't see how that's very Holy of you.” I did my best to make sense of the whole situation. 

All he could do was laugh in response. “Please, at least I'm fighting for something, what is any of this going to accomplish Devil? What do you fight for? *Coughs* WHAT DO YOU FIGHT FOR?!” He screamed eventually falling into unconsciousness like the rest. 

I couldn't think anymore, I've lost too many people in my life, my father, Stick, Elektra and now Foggy, Hogarth, Claire, Danny, Cawleen, Karen. I teared up I couldn't take this anymore, I removed my cowl and just fell to my knees in tears. I cupped my head with my hands as I rested my back against the car eventually being too distraught to even cry. 

I just sat there.

I could sense random pieces of debris fall from the buildings above in the deafening silence, the sheets of paper effortlessly hovered through the air, taking as long as they liked to reach the ground, where they would remain as no one was around who would clean. 

I eventually heard a helicopter from about 50ft away down the road. It hovered below building level, eventually causing for my hair to ruffle as well as for the massive upturn of wind around it to cause for all the light debris that was nested on the ground to turn to the skies in a frenzy. 

The helicopter wasn't flying haphazardly but instead with a great deal of precision, it could only be the police. The mere fact that they were still a functioning institution surprised me. From what I heard they had increased their game which was confirmed when a few officers used ropes to descend onto the ground. It was easy to decipher their military grade armour with masks and assault rifles on their backs. 

3 officers held up their arms and aimed them right at me keeping a distance of about 5ft or so as they prepared to shoot if I did anything. I just looked down, not that it was hindering to myself but because I just couldn't be bothered to defend myself anymore. All I could tell was that there were 2 female, one male, all being slightly hesitant with their weapons, they probably were recruited recently due to the sudden need for officers. 

Another officer came down but he didn't bother to bring out his gun, from the way he walked and how the others subconsciously reacted in his presence I could tell he was in charge. He knelt down in front of me examining my face as he lifted it up like a medical examiner gathering details on a corpse. His scent was familiar but I wasn't in the mood to bother trying to figure out who he was. He then removed his helmet and mask to reveal that it was Brett Mahoney an officer that Foggy went to school with and was a friend of ours during our days as lawyers.

“You got promoted.” I muttered while he was coming to terms with my identity.

“Anything to keep order, like arresting dangerous vigilantes like you.” Brett said coldly abandoning his emotional connection to me.

“Funny, I thought we had an agreement.” I smiled almost turning to hysteria in this situation.

“We can't afford that anymore, no one can take the law into their own hands when there's barely any system left. Now Matthew Murdock, you are under arrest for acting as a vigilante, obstruction of justice, breaking and entering and multiple accounts of assault. You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future.” Brett said while getting me to my feet and walking me forward leaving my cowl on the ground, he slapped a pair of cuffs around my wrists and pushed me to walk forwards as the other officers had their guns trained on me.

“For what it's worth, I'm sorry.” Brett told me, it was nice to know that there was still a friend left in him.

“Thank you.” I replied, this small bit of warmness from someone I barely knew was relieving but just as quick as it came it left and I dissolved back into my depression, it will never escape me. 

“Jane, call dispatch to have them bring a clean up crew here, taking these gangs out is huge.” Brett called to one of the officers.

“Yes sir” the woman on the left replied, holstering her gun and bringing out her radio. Before she could however, a large thud came from the helicopter washing away the silence as an echo emanated throughout the street. Subsequent crashes and a few gunshots could be heard from it resulting in the officers including Brett to aim their guns towards it.

The helicopter then veered to the side and sent itself on a collision course to the abandoned building next to us, just before it made contact the pilot was thrown out of the craft and almost landed onto the ground killing him but he was saved by a woman who came out of nowhere, she jumped onto a car, using it to propel herself to inhuman levels grabbing the pilot in the air and then somersaulting in the air and landing on her knee and then tossed the Pilot's unconscious body to the ground. The helicopter then met with the building and exploded causing for a massive explosion to ripple across the side of the once meagre apartment building.

The resulting debris was all the distraction the woman needed as she then lunged forward thrusting into the officer who was just about to use her radio into a car knocking her out as she cracked the windshield. She then knocked the gun out of the second officer then finishing her off with a spin kick knocking her into the 3rd before he could even fire a shot. Brett attempted to use his knife to land a strike but the woman dodged each one then grabbed his right arm and used a judo technique to pull him over her shoulder and onto the ground where she then broke the arm. 

After all this I put everything together, it was Jessica Jones. I then heard footsteps coming from the crash site of the helicopter, it was Luke who emerged with a slight limp and shredded clothing but still in good condition thanks to his impenetrable skin. He must've jumped onto the helicopter from a nearby rooftop. 

Jessica turned to me and used her strength to break the cuffs as Brett looked on in fear. 

“Come on we need to move, we'll explain later.” Jessica turned to me and ordered. 

“It's good to see ya Red.” Luke smiled while tapping me on the side of my arm. 

“No…” I managed to say amongst the excitement, causing me to get strange looks from the two of them as far as I could make out from their body language. 

“What do you mean no?” Jessica asked irritatingly. 

“I mean I'm done, what's the point? Half the world died and everything went to hell, most places on the planet have become hell. No matter how many looters or crazed cult leaders I take down, nothing will change! This world can't be saved, so go and catch your bank robbers, I'm finished.” I exposited while sitting down on the hood of the car behind me.

“We did think you were finished,” Luke began to speak. “We thought you died man! All of us, we mourned, we went to your funeral. And then what I'm guessing one of Stick’s friends found you and nursed you back and you were living a life on some monastery, then you came back here when all this happened?” 

“Basically.” I said while rolling my eyes.

“The point is, is that you came back cause people needed you, you put on that suit again cause we all needed you. You had something to fight for then, because you wanted to help people.” Luke continued while getting up in my face. 

“You still want to fight back, I know it, because I know you. You can't help but do the right thing, even if it's just saving a little boy from finding his father dead in an alleyway you will.” Jessica interjected getting under my skin with her words. “This is your opportunity to help rebuild the world.” 

I couldn't help but realise they were right, if I just went to prison what would happen, I'd probably end up dying in a riot and then what?

“The government couldn't handle this, maybe we should lead by example.” I replied heading their words. “We should build a better world by avenging the last.” I continued looking to my cowl that was on the floor, I picked it up in my hands and then shed a tear for all the people I lost.

I holstered my Billy club, patted the dust off the suit and then put the cowl back on fastening it to the sides of my face and turned to my friends who smiled at what they saw, and for Jessica that was huge.

“K let's do what the Avengers couldn't.” I told them as we began to walk off. Jessica quickly stopped to hand Brett's radio to him.

“Like you said, taking out these gangs is huge.” She told him before walking with the rest of us leaving Brett to just look on with a bewildered expression as he sat up.

“So what's the plan?” I asked.

“Recruitment,” Luke replied.

“Next stop Rand Enterprises labs in Long Island.” Jessica continued.

“I thought Danny died with the rest?” I asked with confusion.

“He did, but Misty didn't.” Luke replied doing his best to hide his sadness for the loss of his friend.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys thanks for reading, please leave a comment if you can and btw I've changed the formatting a bit to make things more clear.

17 hours after Ash Day - Thor POV

Titan was once the home of Thanos the mad Titan, a beautiful Utopia that was known throughout the Galaxy as a Haven for all. But after it became overpopulated resources were scarce so it became a wasteland and hollow reminder of what it once was. I used the bifrost to take me here after Rocket wanted me to check on the remaining Guardians after we lost, to see if they were still standing.

All I found was a bleak desolate desert coupled with ruined structures that seemed to be great at one point. As I scanned my eyes upon this desolate, silent graveyard I felt a bump on my neck. 

I turned to see that it was a stone thrown by a blue metallic looking woman who was sitting on a structure above me.

“About time you came, Asgardian.” She called out to me while jumping down to her feet, landing right in front of me. 

“You must be Nebula... are you the only one who survived?” I asked with a heavy heart as realised that we were even more outgunned than I once thought.

“Everyone died…. Except him.” Nebula explained in a soft voice which for her seemed extremely difficult. She gestured to a large rock near an old building to my left. At its base I saw Tony sitting by himself with his arms crossed and his head down with half of his armour still on with the rest seeming to have been blown off. 

“I'll send you to Earth, you should explain what happened to Steve, once I return I'll take you wherever you'd like.” I said turning back to her and gesturing for her to step back which she did. 

“For what it's worth I'm sorry.” She said as I powered up my axe.

“I am too.” I managed to say before bifrosting her away to the New Avengers facility. 

I staggered my steps before reaching Tony who seemed to be nursing a stab wound with his nanotech which I barely understood. Dropping my axe to the ground I knelt in front of him as I couldn't bare to see him like this. 

“Tony what happened?” I asked barely being able to contain my tears.

“They're dead, all those Guardians, Strange and….. the kid.” Tony cried as he kept his face down while wiping his tears. 

“Kid?” Is asked.

“Peter! Damn, he was only 17…. I brought a God damn 17 year old kid into this! What the hell was I thinking?, he's dead because of me! He never should have been here…. I killed him!” Tony continued to cry not wanting to look me in the face due to his shame.

“Tony…. Whether he was here or not wouldn't have mattered, it was a 50 50 chance…. We lost friends too….” I said sitting back and tearing up myself. 

“Who?” He whispered.

“Wilson, T’challa, Vision, Tre-Groot, Barnes, Wanda.” I listed each name growing more tearful with each one. 

“I'm guessing the Earth has gone crazy.” Tony interjected.

“We're trying to rebuild but we are on our own, we need all the help we can get, Tony we need you. We need Iron Man.” I told him, wiping my tears.

“No, I've done enough. Even before this, I filled half a graveyard with my weapons, ever since I shut them down I looked up every innocent person that was killed in a drone strike because of me, every one of my guns that have been used in one of the many countless shootings that happen in America alone every year. And now I get him killed, I'm done. The world doesn't need me, I'm just waste.” Tony said and then immediately used the nano tech to construct a rupluser on his hand and aimed it at his head. 

Just before he fired I managed to intercept the blast with my hand and felt the burn which was painful as hell.

“Tony no! You can't! I'm not going to let you! Argh!” He kept firing shots repeatedly into my hand and I eventually grew tired of the continual pain and flowed a charge through my other hand and placed it on his chest plate and cancelled out the charge of the arc reactor causing it to power down its major functions. Tony couldn't use the nanobots anymore to create the armour so it's weight acted on him causing for him to remain limp on the ground. 

I picked him up and positioned him over my shoulder, I grabbed my axe and summoned the Bifrost to take me to Earth despite him screaming for me to let him go. 

With a great flash of light we arrived at the courtyard of the New Avengers Facility where we could see Steve and Natasha speaking with some workers as well as Nebula on the steps of the path leading up to the main building. 

I heaved a heavy sigh while dumping Tony's flailing body on the ground where a couple of guards picked him up. 

“Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.” I demanded while turning around to look to the sky and began twirling the axe ready to take off.

“Thor where are you going?!” Natasha called after me.

“There’s probably some terrorist or something taking advantage of the situation somewhere, I'll be back.” I said before taking off knowing that I needed to burn off some steam.

Present Day - Luke POV

We finally found Matt, I couldn't believe it when me and Jess saw him after all this, I thought he died on Ash Day but he's here sitting in the backseat of the car me and Jess “acquired” on our way through the apocalyptic remains of New York. I was in the passenger seat with Jess behind the wheel but not even she could avert eyes to the fires that were still burning throughout the city. 3 planes crashed into the city in morbid irony as their pilots were nowhere to be seen. Damage Control was clearing up the mess of one in Queens but the one that landed in Long Island was still there as that area had been overrun by a cult like militia that would kill anyone who disagreed with them.

Pockets of the city were still functioning somehow, Queens in general was relatively sustaining itself but with an increased crime rate coupled with heavily restricted military control to monitor the disturbances. Knowing that they probably would eventually leave the nightmare zones alone if not enough could be done, there are good people still there which is breaking my heart, no one is there to help them. The remaining Avengers had been given unrestricted access to resources to operate by what remained of the United Nations, they were handling the more major threats that resulted from this but what could they do?

They're hopelessly outgunned as their strongest, Vision and Scarlet Witch were killed on Ash Day, well there were rumours that Thor had come back but what could anyone do?

“So why headed to Rand Labs?” Matt asked from the backseat.

“Misty lost her arm in the fight with The Hand so Danny was working on a prosthetic, just before Ash Day she underwent surgery and has been kept in a medically induced coma since, we need to get her.” I explained.

“What do we need her for? You still haven't told me what you're doing.” He asked while me and Jessica exchanged looks with each other. 

“You'll find out soon.” Jess said breaking the silence. 

“I trust you, let's get her back.” Matt spoke up as we crossed over Queen's Boulevard which was almost vacant of any traffic beyond the odd car here and there, apparently War Machine cleared up all the major highways in the city last week as numerous car crashes happened as a result of Ash Day.

Eventually we found ourselves by what looked like was once a state of the art science center but now it was as silent and vacant as everywhere else. The windows were shattered, the automatic door was halfway open and there was a body of a scientist lying by the entrance, seemingly shot at some point. 

“Oh hell…” I managed to say amongst the silence, Jess squeezed my hand to bring me back to senses as Matt stepped forward to focus his hearing.

“How's it looking?” Jessica spoke up to get something out of Matt who just held up his hand behind him to keep us quiet.

“One heartbeat…. Slow…. She's here!” He said while getting out his club and led us through. 

The halls were deserted, lights were flickering and many appliances had stopped functioning as we made our way through the desolate labs. 

“We always seem to end up in generic hallways.” I said lightening the mood, causing Matt to smile.

“Danny loved fighting people in hallways.” Matt smiled remembering him, making me realize I should talk about it after Jess gave me a look.

“After the stuff with the Hand me and him teamed up a lot, taking out a couple small time gangs, he even started wearing a green version of your old mask.” I explained while we walked causing Matt to let out a breath while smiling.

“Remember how many times you tried to beat him up when ya met?” Jess smiled which was nice to see, she'd dealt with enough trauma over her life, it was good to see her smile.

“You were with him? On Ash Day.” Matt spoke up obviously being able to read our conversation.

“We were having coffee.” I said then immediately noticed the look I got from Jess, even Matt turned when he didn't need to.

“Not like that! We were just sitting in a diner after a bust and then he just vanished before my eyes, I thought we'd be partners for longer than we were.” I laughed but then fell back into a mental slump. 

I felt Matt's arm on my shoulder.

“He was a Defender.” He told me giving me a smile despite him not being very good at giving reassuring looks.

“Is that our name now?” Jess asked. 

“It's catchy.” I said smiling at her.

“Let's go.” Matt said while smiling, I guess the name was gonna catch on.

Eventually we came to a halt, Matt stood still as he was hearing something from behind us right before we reached the recovery ward. 

“What is it?” I asked as stopped.

“Shit.” He said while tossing his Billy club at a fire extinguisher at the end of the hall causing it to burst open making the end of the hall get covered in smoke. “Hold them off! I'll get to Misty.” He shouted while dashing into the recovery ward.

“Who off!?” Jess shouted after him as he caught his club in his hand.

“The Militia.” I said as I noticed their white and red hoods, each holding assault rifles while stating us down as their masks managed to keep them relatively ok while walking through the smoke, although a few did drop to the ground. 

“For justice!” Came a dozen or so voices emanating from the smoke. 

They fired a barrage of bullets towards us, Jess took cover behind me as I stared them down while the bullets bounced off my chest. I heard her taking several steps back while they all concentrated their fire on me. She sprinted up towards me and kicked me forward with all her strength launching me into them. The sheer force of my landing took out several in addition to my fist striking down another. There were 7 left all trying to make sense of what had just happened.

Jessica ran into them, dodging a punch and grabbing the arm and throwing him across the hall into another who was about to shoot her.

She then bashed one of them into a wall and another she lifted with one arm into the ceiling and dropped their body to the ground. While still on the ground I pulled one of their legs to bring them to the ground then putting them into a sleeper hold. Jessica launched another down the hall with a kick when I then stood up and we both punched out the last one. 

The second he hit the floor Matt burst through the double doors of the ward holding an unconscious Misty in his arms who was wearing a hospital like gown and what surprised me and Jess the most was that she had an arm. It was a golden, bionic, larger than life arm that reminded us of pictures of The Winter Soldier that they had seen before. 

“Damn.” I managed to say before we all shuttled off outside the building.

We took a breath on the rooftop near the lab and scanned our eyes on the few wandering souls on the streets. Queens was relatively calm say for several wrecks on many streets but Long Island was deafening. People were scared to walk out on the streets and the police had pretty much abandoned the district, any push the blues made was met by the armed militia who patrolled the streets, no one knew their agenda or whether or not they did themselves. Matt administered something to Misty's neck that would wake her up in a few minutes while the three of us turned to the city.

“How can we fix this?” I asked but the other two could barely answer given everything they could see or sense in Matt's case. “All these people are on their own, alone no one cares for them before and now… it's even worse.”

“That's our job. To protect them.” Matt replied seeing to have acquired some of my optimism from earlier. 

“Hey I'm just doing this so they'll start shipping alcohol here again.” Jess smirked trying to hide her feelings with angst which just made me laugh.

“Guys?” We heard a familiar voice, Misty had awoken from her coma and must've had an incredibly crude awakening given all that was around us. 

“Misty.” I turned around with the other two and knelt down to her and helped her up. She took note of her metal arm and stood back in shock.

“What happened to my? To the city… what's going on?” She frantically asked in confusion as she adjusted to this new world. 

“We need your help Misty, the world needs us.” I managed to say, calming her down.

“You still haven't told me what's going on.” Matt interjected.”

“You're gonna help us save the world.” Came a voice from the other side of the rooftop. Slowly a white man with sunglasses appeared seeming to use a cloaking device on his wrist. 

Almost immediately a man in a purple and black and yellow head to toe military armour grappled down like a ninja, as well as two others clad in similar armour as well as helmets seemed to grow out of tiny specs on the ground and stood next to the first man.

It was Ronin previously known as Hawkeye, The Wasp, and Ant Man as well as Phil Coulson, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, please leave a comment with feedback if you can! :)


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